Making Candy Sprinkles into Rings (Resin Casting)

I wanted to make a ring out of sprinkles. I wanted to try a whole bunch of different things. So I added a little bit of glow, blue and red glow powder. I want to do it really dense.

My first step was to measure out the amount of resin that I wanted to use. I used a scale to do this and this will determine the amount of catalyst that I want to use later. Then we've got our three different cups and I did three different things. The first one I'm added these circular kinds of green, purple, and blue spheres. Then the other two I did regular sprinkles. For the glow powder ones I ended up doing another one and that one had a little bit less.  

My next step I took these for acrylic tubes and I put tape on the bottom. That sealed it off and then I sprayed in a little bit of mold release that makes it easier to separate the material from the tube.

Then I added the catalyst and it's important to do this last because the second you mix in that catalyst you're starting the clock of when this is going to start hardening. You want to be as quick as possible. I added a catalyst to one and mix it very thoroughly.  That's very important to get it all mixed and then pour it into our casting tube.

I repeated the process for the next three of them. Then I put them in the vacuum chamber. That gets completely rid of any bubbles. I would recommend using a polyester resin those do a lot better at not getting bubbles in them.

We've got our material ready to work with. You're looking for a strong sturdy material to machine. One thing I found was that it's good to use a higher rpm on the lathe. That way I could just get in and make some clean cuts. I don't want to leave the tool touching the material for too long as that could cause the resin to overheat and melt.

I switched between my different materials to hollow out the inside as well as for trim the final diameter on the outside. Then I got my very basic ring shape made and so I used my cut off a bit and I just slice off our piece here. I trimmed it up with the dremel a little bit. But there's a bit more work to do on that ring before it's finished.

On to the finishing touches. I sanded the inside making sure that's all smooth. Make sure it has a comfort finish so it can actually be comfortable as a ring. Then I polish it up all the way up to about a 1200 grit. This makes it so there are no sanding marks on there.

The final step that I did take CA glue and I put a little bit on a paper towel and I added that straight on to the ring while the lathe is turned on. This gives it a protective coating and makes it waterproof. That way water can't infiltrate into the sugar and cause our entire ink to dissolve. And you have your ring!